next time i'll stick with what i know

Sunday, January 4, 2009

after a rousing few days in canton over new years i headed back to cleveland go out with bird and lippe last night.

my BBM to bird discussing where to go consisted of this:

me: bird! let's go somewhere random that we never go to.bird: um, that's going to be hard considering we are everywhere girlsme: touche

a few hours pass and when i got back to bird i had come up with the brilliant idea of going to the east side of cleveland. i have downtown and the near west side (OC and tremont) in my pocket but really only venture to the east side to shop at nordstrom's.

and to think i call myself a plum. pish posh.

i came up with bodega on coventry because it had just what we were looking for - martinis and tappas. i hadn't heard that many good things about this place but hey, we were trying to do something different right?

when we walked in at 8pm on a saturday night the place was empty - maybe 6 other people in the whole place. and all i could think about was how if bodega was located downtown or on the near west side it would have been full. although, when we left a little after ten it was starting to fill up.

we bellied up to the bar and waited a while to get noticed (not like they were busy or anything). oh sorry, the dude bartender was busy watching the titans/chargers game.

strike one.

the martini list was overwhelming but at least it was creative. after ms bartender pried herself away from wiping down glasses the order exchange went a little like this:

finally we get our drinks (tasty and strong), and decide to order some food from the tappasmenus.

bird: i'll have the braised short rib and the she crab bisquems bartender: [writing it down] ooooo. wait, yeah, we don't have the short rib tonight.bird, lippe and i: [laughing] are you serious? [chuckle, chuckle]

strike four - you are definitely out. at this point we were surprised they had water to offer us.

all in all we order the crab bisque, the crab cakes, the blackened day boat scallops, lamb lollipops and the eggplant rollatini for the three of us - thankfully we were pleasantly surprised. the food (though luke warm) was actually really good. the flavors were thought out and the scallop with the mango jimica salsa was by far my favorite.

a strike was taken away with the food being enjoyable. another strike was taken away because of luca mundaca who was performing. her voice was the sweetest female voice i have heard in a long time and once she started singing it was the perfect accompaniment to dinner - it actually calmed us down. it was as if there was a studio cd playing instead of a live act. and i say that in the BEST way possible - her voice and songs were wonderful.

after the iffy bodega experience we headed back downtown and went to maproom (shocker), and after too many drinks and shots of patron xo we stopped at liquid and ultra where it was lame sauce but by then i was over it all and the only thing on my mind was a slice. good times.

side note: "hypothetically" speaking (wink wink). so if you were sitting at the bar with your purse on the stool next to you and someone placed a nice black (although cheap) scarf on the stool over your purse while your back was turned, what would you do. now it isn't your scarf - you had actually lost your black scarf the weekend before at sushi rock and needed a new one.

you ask everyone around you if it was their scarf, everyone answering no. you ask the bartender - it wasn't theirs either. you interrupt the couple making out a few seats down from you, it wasn't theirs either. it's now closing time and don't want to leave the scarf all alone, it obviously needed a new home...

would you have taken it? i mean hypothetically speaking, of course...

have a good first full work week of 2009, anything's possible. (vomit)

31 comments:

I don't know about the scarf! That's quite a moral dillema! Although chances are it was just chillin' on the floor and someone picked it up thinking it was yours and threw it on your purse. If no one claims it then you might as well take it. If you turn it in someone who works at the bar will just take it. At least you tried to find the rightful owner. Legally speaking - definitely no crime. :)

I don't know much about Bodega itself, but I would guess that the Coventry neighborhood in general was not quite hopping since both universities in the area don't come back from winter break for another whole week.

Hmm I am torn. I would like to say that I would have taken it for myself because I did ask if it belonged to anyone. But I think I would have also given it to the bartender to see if they have a lost and found but if they said I could have it, then it's mine!

I love the line, "we are everywhere girls" ... because it reminds me of everywhere man from college. He was this primitive looking guy (I kid you not) and he was EVERYWHERE. I went to a large state university and yet everyone seemed to know of this guy. Everywhere man. Everywhere girls. No relation, I know, but funny nevertheless.

i would've taken it....hey you asked everyone around you if it they owned said scarf. at least the scarf got to go to a nice home and not end up in the gutter some place. the way i see it? you saved that poor scarf.

Oh yeah, take the scarf. Many of the winter accessories and umbrellas in my collection come from when I was ushering at a theater. People leave that stuff behind all the time and never give it a second thought.

I warned you on Twitter that Bodega was bad. Horrible service...No one there...The waitress not knowing the menu...I swear you were telling MY experience there when my husband took me there for our first year anniversary.

As an update, he called and complained about the service, and guess how they "fixed" the problem. By leaving us a gift certificate for $35. Now I get to relive the experience all over again! Yippee!!

Oh yeah, and we had to go there and pick it up. Heaven forbid they send it directly to us!

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Some would say I'm a 34-year-old marketing professional who has been blogging about her life in Cleveland since '08. I would say I love cooking, drinking bubbles and wearing black. My Mom (and new husband) would say I'm just nuts.